down, five to go. Royce remembered holding the door open for an older gentleman as he was exiting the shop; the gentleman had tipped his hat, smiled, and wished Royce a good day.
Something about that little man had seemed peculiar. Royce couldn’t shake the feeling, so he had contacted Sean with instructions to pull surveillance video of the area to review.
“No can do boss,” Sean had immediately responded. “The surveillance cameras are down.”
“Shit,” Royce did not like to be told no. “When will they be back on-line?”
“Not sure, it shouldn’t be too long. I’ll see if I can get him when he leaves the shop,” Sean had promised.
Still, one coin had been easily secured and in the spirit of celebration, Royce had decided to treat himself to a detour through White Point Gardens. He had planned to enjoy the majestic Oaks and Spanish-moss one last time before leaving the city. And that is where it all went to hell in a hand basket.
“Son of a bitch,” Royce muttered.
“Jonah! I thought I asked you to stop with the language,” Natie snapped immediately.
Oops! Royce almost laughed aloud, but that would not be a good idea… so he settled for a silent chuckle.
“What? I didn’t--” Jonah began defensively.
“Natie,” Becki interrupted, “are you sure you don’t want to go down with me tomorrow and hunt for teeth?” she asked; as if she didn’t already know the answer to that question.
“Need I remind you that if you are finding sharks’ teeth, there have been or still are sharks out there?” Natie shivered.
“Don’t be a big baby. The water temperature is awesome, and I promise to protect you if we run into sharks, eels, giant octopi or any other man-eating sea creature,” Becki said biting her lip. She tried, but could not mask the laughter sparkling in her eyes.
Sharks! What the--? Had Royce heard correctly?
After reaching White Point Gardens, Royce remembered feeling a prickly-tingling sensation. He scanned the area while reaching for his weapon; he sensed they were close by. He caught a glimpse of- What? Who? Witches, it had to be. They had to be responsible for boxing him up like last year’s Christmas decorations. As if simply immobilizing him were not enough, they had evidently then dumped him in the ocean. Why? Presumably, their intent had been to slow him down. If they had wanted him dead, he would be shark food by now.
Royce breathed as deeply as the confined space would allow. While he was appreciative of the magical seal around the crate, he would not be passing out forgiveness any time soon; when he found those Witchy women…well, the reunion would not be pleasant.
“Ha!” Natie scoffed. “You know I’m not going down in those sharkinfested waters with you! I’m perfectly content right here.” Natie was not really what you would consider the “outdoorsy type”, she didn’t like bugs or snakes, didn’t like the ocean because there were fish in it, was not a fan of camping, hiking, or anything else that did not involve at least four stars and room service. With long blond hair and big blue eyes, she was used to being flirted with, pampered, and catered to. Everyone loved Natie. Well, everyone except Jonah it seemed.
“I wish I could get this stupid thing open,” Jonah said, smacking the top of the crate as he passed by.
He and Becki had been diving earlier in shallow water, looking for sharks’ teeth, when she spotted the crate. It looked fairly new, wasn’t overly large, and turned out to be fairly light weight. Becki sure hoped it wasn’t full of drugs or something else illegal. She planned to text her uncle to ask if he could help her open it tomorrow.
Kurt, her mother’s brother, was a master diver and an expert in “all-things-ocean”. He was also a building contractor with a garage full of tools; surely they could find something to pry off that stubborn lid. God knew Jonah could barely open a can of beer, and the thought of power tools in his hand was enough to send her screaming into the next county.
“Don’t worry about it Jonah,” Becki said, standing up to stretch. “I’ll deal with it later. Right now, we need to pull anchor and get back to the marina.”
Becki made her way to the captain’s chair calling over her shoulder, “What are you guys doing tonight? Are you going to come in to the Pub later?”
Jonah started to answer, “That sounds--”
“No!” Natie interrupted him. “We are going downtown for